Dragon Theories: Windgnasher

Today's theories are on a dragon requested by QueenBossotronio: the Windgnasher!

I was honestly really excited for this dragon. It's one of my absolute favorites! (Y'all know how I like my ice dragons.) Nothing really profound to say here this week; I only have to say that hopefully I did this amazing creature justice. (Also, I really want this dragon, SoD. Please? Please?)

Enjoy!


Theory 1: The Windgnasher's blind spot is behind its frill and hump. The Windgnasher has eyes placed very far forward on its head, which probably gives it good vision to the front of it even with that bulbous nose. (This makes sense, as the Windgnasher has the ability to shoot sharpshooter blasts over a long distance and actually prefers to stay back in a fight.) So I don't think it has any blind spots to the front of it. But with its frill and big hump, it's obvious that it won't really be seeing anything coming up behind it.

Theory 2: The Windgnasher's nose is bulbous to allow room for many smell receptors, and its chin is bulbous to balance out the bulbous nose. Its nose is very sensitive. Speaking of the Windgnasher's nose, let's talk about that nose. Windgnashers are Tracker Class dragons, but this is a little problematic for one reason: their nose doesn't appear to be that long. Yes, they do have a long face, but given the placement of their eyes, their doesn't seem to be a whole lot of room for their nose to extend up that long face. I think, to make up for this, Windgnashers make extra room for smell receptors in their nose by having a bulbous shape to it. However, this makes the top of their face rather top-heavy, which is inconvenient for a flying animals, so the chin is also large and round to balance out this big nose. And since it does have this rounded nose that's chock full of smell receptors and sensory organs, that nose is probably very sensitive. A punch in the snout is likely very painful for this creature, which may be why it likes to hang back during fights and shoot from afar.

It should be noted that we have no idea where the Windgnasher's nostrils are, so I might not be even pointing to its nose here...but I'm just going to assume the nostrils are on the front of its face somewhere since Gustnudger does appear to try to sniff Toothless with the front of his face in the second film. (Maybe the nostrils blend in with the bumps on its nose. ...I mostly think it was an animation mistake.)

Theory 3: The Windgnasher can eat fish but hunts mainly birds and land animals. They often shoot prey from afar. So...this theory actually goes against one I've posted on the School of Dragons forum before. In the past, when asked about the Windgnasher's prey, I theorized it hunted fish because...well, when in doubt, assume a dragon eats fish. At which point I theorized that the bumps on the front of its face were much like a crocodile's "pressure receptors" in that they could be held in the water and sense the movement of the water, allowing the Windgnasher to know when fish were swimming by. Since we have no idea where the nostrils are on this dragon, one could even theorize the nostrils are not on the front of the face so the Windgnasher can stick its "nose" in the water for long periods of time to sense incoming fish.

I no longer believe any of that. Throw that entire theory out the window. Just chuck it.

The problem with my initial thinking was that I was so caught up on how it would fish by looking at its anatomy that I forgot to look at what its behavior can tell us about its hunting and diet. And though we do see it happily eat fish in HTTYD2, its behavior does not line up with a fishing dragon at all. We know very little about it, but we do know that it can detect smells high on the wind...hence its name. Here's the thing; if you're trying to track down fish as you're prey, you are not sniffing the wind. In order for such a trait to helpful to the Windgnasher, they a) need to be either somewhere high up or flying a good bit of time, not down by the water, and b) need to be searching for something that can be sniffed on the air, which would be prey that lives on land or flies. For this reason, I think Windgnashers actually normally hunt birds and land animals, but they can have a very varied diet and will eat fish when that is what they are fed.

Given this, we can also theorize a little about how it may normally hunt. Following scents on the wind means it probably often goes after prey by flying, but being a big, bulky dragon, I don't think they'd be the most elegant or fast flyer. However, remember these dragons are sharpshooters that like to stay back in a fight, so perhaps they often hunt by shooting their prey from afar, rather than having to swoop down and grab them. Since they have an icy blast rather than a fiery one, their blast would be capable of incapacitating or even killing the prey without compromising the meat...so long as the Windgnasher doesn't mind it cold.

Theory 4: The Windgnasher is a great endurance flyer and can fly at high altitudes. Up above I pointed out that, for sniffing things in the wind to be useful, the Windgnasher has to spend a lot of time high up. Now I do think it does often nest in caves in cliffs - see Theory 12 - but I also think to even be a cliff dweller, it will still have to spend a good part of its time flying, not to mention combat the heavy winds that a seaside cliff may entail. On top of that, it has tiny legs that would not be too efficient at getting around on the ground very quickly. For this reason, while I don't think the Windgnasher is likely a super fast or super agile flyer, I think it is a very strong and enduring flyer, able to keep course even against fierce gusts of air, able to fly at high altitudes, and able to fly for hours upon hours. I don't think it's on the same level as the Windwalker or Silver Phantom in this regard, but I do think it spends quite a bit of its time in the air, even compared to many other dragon species.

Theory 5: The Windgnasher's mace-like tail is mainly used as a weapon against rivals and other dangerous dragons. The frill prevents rivals from biting the neck, and its heavy armor and bumps also evolved to protect it in these confrontations. One of the things that I find interesting about the Windgnasher is that Dragons: Rise of Berk claims they like to hang back and shoot from afar during an attack, but this doesn't match their physical, non-firepower weaponry...namely that mace-like tail. That is clearly there to hit someone if they get to close. But why would a dragon that doesn't like to fight up close evolve a weaponized body part designed for fighting up close?

I think it's because the Windgnasher doesn't have much a choice. Its build does not suggest a dragon that is fast on land or in the air, despite the fact that its name, tracking skills, and habitat suggest that it spends quite a bit of time in the air. So I think the Windgnasher is liable to get into some sticky situations with rival dragons - which may be other Windgnashers, fighting over mates or resources, or even getting into spats with other species - without having anyway to evade, keep back, or out-run their opponent. For this reason, even though it's a fairly non-confrontational fighter when given the choice, it has to have the ability to engage in a close-combat battle. And since its nose is sensitive, it has instead evolved the ability to smack rivals with the other end of its body, using its tail. In response to this close-combat fighting, it has also evolved ways to defend is own body. It has hard armor that's hard to penetrate, bony knobs and bumps on its body that make it difficult for rivals to bite its hide, and a frill that prevents rivals and predators from having a clear shot at biting its neck. The Windgnasher may not be much of an aggressor, but it is a tough dragon if you decide to engage it, whether up attacking from afar or getting up close and personal.

Theory 6: The Windgnasher's hump stores fat. The Windgnasher has a huge hump on its back; it's even called a "hump-backed dragon" by Dragons: Rise of Berk. Now when animals have humps, they are normally storing one of two things: muscle or fat. And this hump is not in the right place for muscle. Humps in regards to muscles are usually above limbs, which is what the muscles are powering (seen in animals such as moose). But the Windgnasher's hump is in the middle of its back and certainly would contribute much to its tiny front legs, nor is it properly positioned to power its powerful back legs. It also is not positioned correctly for flight muscles; flight muscles seen in all flying vertebrates (pterosaurs, birds, and bats) are large under the chest, not atop the back. So having eliminated the possibility of a muscle hump, this is obviously a fat hump.

But why would the Windgnasher store fat? Well, it is an ice dragon and one that, according to Dragons: Rise of Berk, normally migrates to the north for winter following the Northern Lights. So the Windgnasher appears to live in very cold and extreme environments, like many ice dragons in this franchise. Much like I theorized with the Woolly Howl and its hump, the Windgnasher's hump is probably there to provide it with stored fat whenever food is scarce in its cold environment. This means a Windgnasher who hasn't eaten in a long time might not have much of a hump, but a healthy one will have a sizeable hump.

Theory 7: Windgnasher sleep patterns are adaptable; they can be diurnal or nocturnal or both. Since Windgnashers live so far north that they follow the Northern Lights to migrate, they probably mostly live in the Arctic Circle. This means that they live in a climate where the sun fully sets for months at a time in the winter and where the sun never sets for months at a time in the summer. In order to tolerate such changes in sunlight, the Windgnasher has to be able to adapt to being awake during the day and at night.

Theory 8: The Windgnasher can see UV light. I actually talked about this when talking about Woolly Howls, and that's because the Windgnasher and the Woolly Howl share an ability: both can fly through blizzards. In fact, the Windgnasher has a blizzard breath that it can use to fly under cover from other dragons. It can not only fly through blizzards; it will purposefully make mini-blizzards for it to fly through. And their sharpshooter abilities do indicate strong vision, so they likely use vision to "see" through blizzards. And how would they do this without just seeing a white-out or suffering from snow blindness? They would see ultraviolet light! This is an ability observed in reindeer that scientists feel may also be found in most other arctic and Himalayan animals. The UV light reflects off of every surface even in a white-out to make objects visible during a blizzard. These small wavelengths also reflect off the eye multiple times before absorbed so less light is bombarding the eye, making the animal resistant to snow blindness.

Theory 9: The Windgnasher is warm to the touch. Now most dragons are warm to the touch...but this is not always true with the ice dragons. As the only dragons that have a breath weapon that's not hot in temperature, some ice dragons seem to maintain a cold body temperature. Such dragons that we know do this include the Groncicle, Shivertooth, and Prickleboggle. However, the Woolly Howl shows evidence of having adaptations meant to keep it warm, despite its icy breath. So what's the deal with the Windgnasher? Does it have a warm body temperature or is it as cold to the touch as the blast it breathes?

I think the Windgnasher is actually a warm dragon. The reason is that, in How to Train Your Dragon 2, the dragons surrounding the Windgnasher Gustnudger showed no discomfort of being near him, as one often does when next to something that feels cold to the touch. On top of that, Gustnudger himself didn't seem too concerned with being surrounded by so many warm bodies, even when many of them started producing warm fire. If Gustnudger needed to keep his body temperature cold, he might have felt uncomfortable in a crowded, warm cave, but he showed no such discomfort and was even briefly one of dragons mesmerized by Hiccup's sword, Inferno.

Theory 10: Windgnashers make their icy blasts by swallowing dust and water. Their bodies then draw the heat out of that water. They can obtain water by eating snow when necessary. We're not actually sure how the Windgnasher is generating its firepower, but being an ice breather, I think it probably consumes water to make its icy blasts, since ice is just very cold water. So when the Windgnasher drinks, it probably consumes some of the water but stores some of it for its firepower. Also, living a cold environment, it probably takes a page from many other cold-weather animals and is able to eat snow to obtain some of its water.

But being a warm dragon, no matter how it obtains the water for ice, it still has to make that ice cold. I think this is done by either a pressure system, much like one used in a freezer in which we store our food, or by exposing the water to a cold substance that the body created by forcing the heat out of a substance through a chemical reaction. Whatever it is, some sort of energy has to be put in to force out the heat, since without an energy input, a warm body would not be able to generate a cold substance.

But what's also interesting about Windgnashers is that they don't shoot just water; they shoot a flurry of what appear to be snowflakes. Snowflakes are made by tiny bits of ice crystal forming around pieces of pollen or dust. Therefore I think the Windgnasher's own ice is formed the same way, which means along with water, it must also be taking in dust and minerals to make its ice crystals.

Theory 11: The Windgnasher likes to nest in caves. So when trying to find the Windgnasher's habitat and nesting habits, I looked at where the Windgnasher might be found. According to Dragons: Rise of Berk, Windgnashers are most often found at Bellowing Heights, an island said to have a cliffed coast with constant howling winds that make it impossible to hear anything else. They can also be found at Restless Hallows, which are said to be winding caverns normally home to Cavern Crashers. This leads me to believe the Windgnashers like to nest in caves. Such a nesting behavior would draw them cliffsides with caves, where they can easily scent the wind, but also make caverns seem like a welcoming place to nest.

Theory 12: The Windgnasher uses its wing claws to cling to cliff sides. Since Windgnashers seem to like to live in the caves of cliffs, they likely have to cling to cliffsides, and their front talons don't seem well equipped for this. This probably explains why they have wing claws, to help them cling to cliffsides.

Theory 13: The Windgnasher's coloration is meant to attract mates. Windgnashers seem to come interesting colors. They're usually mostly one single color, but that single color varies from green to blue to golden brown. I think, like many other dragons, the Windgnasher often has an eye-catching color to lure in mates.

Theory 14: Windgnashers don't mate for life. Most dragons we've seen breed don't mate for life, so I don't think the Windgnasher do, either.

Theory 15: Female Windgnashers live in groups. Males will join up with females during a northern migration in winter, following the lead female. Up north, the Windgnashers mate and breed. When they travel south in spring, the groups disperse again. Okay, so...I'm stretching a few things on this, so just follow me on this one.

In Dragons: Rise of Berk, there's a Windgnasher named Auroara. Its gender is never stated, but it's assumed that it is female because of its name. She leads thousands of wild dragons on a winter migration to nest in the north, using the aurora as her guide.

So in this case, we have a female Windgnasher who leads a bunch of dragons north on a winter migration. So I took that idea and ran with it. I hypothesize that all Windgnashers migrate north in the winter to breed, so far north that they are in the Arctic Circle where sometimes the aurora borealis can be seen. (Remember, we know at least 4 species of dragon that breed around Snoggletog; Windgnashers might be very much the same, only being ice dragons, they can afford to hatch eggs in more northern hatching grounds.)

Now why do I think females and males normally live in separate groups, with females living together while males live alone or in small bachelor groups? Well, for migrating animals that have matriarchal leaders, that's very typical behavior, common in animals such as elephants. And these migrating animals tend to join the two gender herds together during migration to make one big massive herd, only to disperse again after migration.

It's a bit of a stretch, but...there's no evidence against it.

Theory 16: The spikes on a Windgnasher's egg are meant to deter predators from eating them. They are bent so that they don't catch inside the mother when being laid. Windgnasher eggs are shown to have spikes, and I believe this is to keep predators from eating them. But those spikes are also bent, which I believe keeps the egg from getting caught inside the female Windgnasher while she's laying them.

Theory 17: Windgnashers grow up very quickly. Other dragons seem to, so Windgnashers probably do, too.

Theory 18: The Windgnasher's closest relative is the Snifflehunch and is also related to the Snafflefang, Shovehelm, Common Rockstomper, Moldruffle, and Mudraker. I believe the Snifflehunch is the Windgnasher's closest relative. The two share the same body plan, same hump, and a bulbous nose, chin, and tail, making the Snifflehunch the most like the Windgnasher anatomically. They are also both Tracker Class, using scents to find prey and possibly communicate. We also know from Dragons: Rise of Berk that these two dragons tend to live in the same environments. Everything points toward a relation between them.

The Windgnasher and Snifflehunch also share the same body plan as the Snafflefang, Shovelhelm, Common Rockstomper, Moldruffle, and Mudraker, so they are probably related to these dragons as well. Also, since the Snafflefang is a relative of the Gronckle and Hotburple, and by extension, the Groncicle and Catastrophic Quaken, then the Windgnasher shares a slightly more distant relation to these dragons, too.

Theory 19: If a Windgnasher eats glowing algae, it will glow green. If the Windgnasher is related to the Common Rockstomper and Gronckle, which glows green when it eats glowing algae, it probably also glows green when it eats glowing algae.

And that's all I have on Windgnashers! As always, feel free to tell me whether you agree, disagree, or have anything else you'd like to add.

Next week, we will be doing another request from FoxofManyThings: the Groncicle! (Y'all rolled out back-to-back ice dragons just for me, I know it.) XD